HaLlOwEeN FuN

On Devil's Night we do not allow our children out to burn down abandoned houses like they do in Detroit. Instead we use the evening to create a wholesome activity, Pumpkin Carving! Actually, we don't have it together yet this year and had not gotten around to carving pumpkins and now we were down to the end and HAD to do it. So the kids got to stay up late and carve their pumpkins they picked out almost a month ago.

At 7:30 in the evening we discovered we had none of the special tools created for pumpkin carving. We went searching the local stores while the children cleaned the guts out of their pumpkins. Of course, there were no special carving tools available. We got back home and announced to our children they had to come up with their own designs and carve them out with steak knives. Little did we know how, in the interest of money, Corporate America has been sucking the fun out of pumpkin carving. Our children have never had as much fun carving pumpkins as they did this year! Baby was so happy so be given a Big Knife and told to Cut with it. We don't usually put out butter knives, much less steak knives, for him to use. Grandma was still here and we both cringed as he sawed away creating his masterpiece. Middle Child was the same. Neither were upset that no patterns were provided. They went to town carving away! Here are their creations on our doorstep, inviting all to come and be awed.

Baby's Pumpkin

Middle Child's Pumpkin

Then on Hallowed Trick of Treating Night the children went in droves to fill their bags over and over again with candy. They got enough candy this year for me to gain 20 pounds by Christmas! They're going to have to hide the candy!

Our favorite house to Trick or Treat always provides much needed entertainment for the adults usually freezing their butts off. (This year was nice and unseasonably warm.) This house is a dentists and bankers dream, all rolled into one. While rifling through this year's bag of goodies from them I was almost disappointed because the pamphlets were the same as last year: The Story of Inflation, The Story of Money, The Story of Checks and Electronic Payments, The Story of the Federal Reserve System, The Story of Foreign Trade and Exchange, plus about that many more all complements of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Thank You! This year we also got The Adventures of Buddy McNutty from the National Peanut Board and Milk Matters from US Dep't of Health and Human Services.

My absolute favorite book came from Bethesda and is titled "Color in the Differences." It can be found here just in case you wanted your own copy for your children. It talks about how everything/one is different; Apples and Oranges; Sharks and Whales; Dogs and Cats; and finally your friends are all different from you, you have different names and toys! Then for the last three pages they bring in the children in wheelchairs and talk about how they are different. As if we didn't already know, "They like to be outside and to swim in a pool; They like to be with friends, at home and at school." The end. We get ten pages leading us up to how everything is different and then Wham! Bam! Thank You Ma'am! Disabled children are different but yet the exact same as you! They aren't different after all. Halloween and all it's Tricks.